Ottawa Fest Announces Shorts Selections

The Ottawa International Animation Festival is pleased to announce the official selection of short films that will compete for the Grand Prize at this year’s festival running Sept. 17-21.

From a total of 2,033 entries received, 110 films representing 24 countries have been chosen for the competition.

Eleven Canadian short films will compete alongside with the best animation works from the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, Estonia and Germany.

An additional 71 films were selected for the out-of-competition Showcase screenings; 37 of which films will be shown in Student Showcase.

Among this year’s competitors are four previous OIAF Grand Prize winners:

Priit Pärn (The Night of the Carrots, OIAF 1998)

Andreas Hykade (Ring of Fire, OIAF 2000)

Stephen Irwin (Moxie, OIAF 2011)

David O’Reilly (The External World, OIAF 2010)

This year’s competition is bound to generate some controversy. Piotr Dumala’s Hipopotamy – a horror story/meditation on human violence – has sent shockwaves through animation festivals while Priit and Olga Parn’s Pilots on The Way Home is a graphic, sexually charged satire on male fantasy.

There are also films dealing with other highly charged themes such as addiction (Soif by Michele Cournoyer, Nuggets by Andreas Hykade), mental illness (Through The Hawthorn) and gun violence (the powerful PSA, Monster in the Closet).

There are also plenty of comic tonics to sip on. David O’Reilly (a special guest at this year’s festival) returns with a series of hilarious faux North Korean propaganda films along with his memorable animation sequences from the Spike Jonze feature, Her.

Other comic highlights include Timber, about homicidal pieces of wood; the rap parody, Butter Ya’ Self; along with Lesley the Pony Has an A+ Day; The Brothers McLeod’s gut busting piece of absurdity, 365; and Vince Collin’s Animation School Dropout.